Delhi’s high on excuses

Almost a month after the gruesome gangrape incident in Delhi, there’s still a lot of hue and cry over lack of effective policing. The cops, however, have their own side of the story to tell. Delhiites, they say, are so used to making excuses and dropping names that enforcing law becomes a cumbersome process.

To do the reality check, we decided to witness what actually happens during one such late night checking drive by the cops in North Delhi on Thursday. And not surprisingly, we saw Dilliwallahs come up with excuses to justify all kinds of violations, right from over-speeding to dark film on the car windows.

Powerhouse picket, Pitampura 8:45pm Cops stop a white Fortuner for over-speeding and flashing a red beacon on top. As it turns out, the car, that has no permit to flash the beacon, belongs to a sitting MLA. Rather than behaving like a guardian of the law, the MLA gets down from the car in anger and tells ACP Ashish Anan, "DCP Traffic Police bhi meri lal batti nai utarwa sakta. Tu kaun hai? Public ka naukar hai tu." Thankfully, no heed is paid to the threats and he is fined.

"I didn’t mind what he said. I take pride in being able to serve the public and so should he because he represents them," says Anan.

Sector 2, Rohini 10:30pm ACP Ved Prakash stops a white i10 that has dark film on all windows. 20-year-old Samir comes out and immediately tries to hand over his cellphone to Head Constable Sunil saying, "Yeh le baat kar." Sunil ignores several attempts by the man to make him speak with someone influential and continues stripping the film from the window.

"Dilli mein jisko roko, woh kisi se phone pe baat karwana chahta hai. We refuse to take such calls, but it gets so awkward. The worst is most of such violators are young boys and girls. Parents need to teach them some sense," says Ved Prakash.

He tries to make Narang speak to his father on phone but when Narang refuses, asks his dad to come down. Both his parents, and his brother, arrive at the scene in 10 minutes and pay up the challan. "Achha kiya isko roka. Now he’ll think twice before breaking the rule," says Dheeraj’s dad.